Synchronize

Ritsu was always an easily influenced kid. When she was in kindergarten she had watched a commercial on TV with 'pretty ladies and swans' and decided right then and there to do the ballet. She quit after three lessons because apparently it was 'unmanly and gay'. Her tomboy phase began right then, accompanied by the introduction of The Transformers and various tokusatsu series. Then she decided that she was into martial arts. Of course, that lasted only a week or so before the frustrated teacher had begged her parents in near tears to 'take her away and find her something more conductive such as art to channel her much suppressed, potential harmful youthful energy.' She didn't understand a word of it, but decided that since karate was a bore with 'weak pansy boys and stupid teachers', she'd rather spend more time eating snacks in front of the TV anyways.

Then she met Mio. Perhaps the girl was the only thing Ritsu didn't quit on after a few weeks (apart from school, as it was unfortunately compulsory) as she did with her other friends since they were boring and drab, according to Ritsu's baseless standard. Mio was anything but. For one, her expression when teased was fast becoming a portable entertainment (and Mio was quite portable too, seeing how she hung around Ritsu like slightly challenged moths attracted to the bad, evil fire) that she could have access to anytime, anywhere – considering that they were like butter and bread. One simply did not go without another without feeling an excess of lack. Thus they ended up being known as the 'Mio-Ricchan Combo' by the people around them, even though parents and teachers had always commented on their polar opposite personalities – and sincerely hope that Mio's good qualities would somehow rub off on Ritsu and negate her eccentricities. It never did. In fact, they had noticed Mio's increased tendency of nervous breakdowns and skittishness instead, but quickly dismissed it as one of the ailments of youth.

That being said, the Mio-Ricchan Combo continued their innocent existence peacefully - without the interference of boys or pretty shiny things - throughout primary school and into the first grade of junior high.

…Until they had ended up watching a rock band's concert on DVD.

"This is it!" Ritsu had shouted with stars in her eyes. "This is it!" she repeated with more force, this time taking the liberty to grab Mio's shoulder and shake her left and right. "Let's form a band! A band!"

Mio continued her blank stare, and Ritsu took that chance to shake her harder.

"Mio!"

"I heard you." Shrugging Ritsu's hands off, Mio took the remote and ejected the DVD. "Un."

"Huh? Un- what?"

"Un, as in," she opened the cover, carefully placed the DVD inside, and closed it with a click. "Let's do it."

"Wha…" Ritsu stared at her friend with her mouth open – certainly expecting Mio to play her part and tell her to stop joking accompanied by a well-practiced karate chop instead of agreeing so easily. And the more so, she said it so bashfully? Ritsu had decided then and there that the reason why Mio was busying herself looking at the DVD case with her head hung low was because she was hiding a blush. She simply could not resist. "HOW CUTE, Mio-chuan is embarrassed!"

In her excitement at seeing Mio's very cute, self-conscious nature and the prospect of starting a band, Ritsu decided to hug Mio on impulse while rubbing her head like a puppy.

"Aa- stupid! Let go of me! And stop calling me chuan!"

"Aw, is Mio-chuan embarrassed? Want Ricchan to spend the night with you?"

Now that had earned her a karate chop to the side of her head.

"But well," Mio coughed lightly, "in order to start a band, first we ourselves must proficient with an instrument. It's a given order."

"Geez, I know that already. What's with the complicated words anyways?" After pouting her lips, Ritsu took the liberty to reach across the table to grab Mio's fries and stuffed them into her mouth. "Aneweish, be chon hash-"

Mio shoved her coke towards Ritsu. "Eat; then talk, okay?" Watching her best friend gulp down the coke in an unladylike fashion, she propped her cheek with her hand and viewed the tranquil scenery outside. Winter. Inside a fast food place. Ritsu stuffing herself. Band. Instruments. Why did she even agree last night? Perhaps it was sheer impulse from having being caught up by the moment, but she was starting to have doubts already. They would start having cram school next year. Or at least she would. Study, study, study. She really couldn't fathom fitting learning an instrument from scratch on top the already perceived hell of the second and third year. Sighing, she regarded Ritsu with a sideway glance. "Done already?"

Ritsu patted her stomach. "Yep! Anyways I was saying, we don't even have an instrument."

"Buy it."

"But it's expensive right? Can't we just…"

"Hn?"

"Steal 'em from the school band? Tee hee."

"…I'm leaving."

Ritsu immediately snatched Mio's sleeve and bowed her head. "I'm sorry. It was a joke."

"Well, first we gotta decide which one to play, right? Here," After settling back into her seat with a disgruntled expression, Mio pulled a book out from her bag and laid it open in the middle after clearing Ritsu's messy remnants of her food out of the way. "See? It pretty much gives you the basic idea on the prices and the models."

Having leaned forward to take a better look, Ritsu immediately jerked back looking clearly blasphemed. "Uha- fricking expensive! This is rip-off, Mio, a rip-off! Burn the book!" And with that, she threw the book backwards without a single glance and conveniently ignored the dull thud and muffled cry following it.

"Oi! Don't just throw people's book away like that!"

Mio made an attempt to lunge at her book, but with precise calculation born from the frequency of seeing and analyzing the pattern Mio's attack, Ritsu had nimbly caught Mio's flailing hand with unfailing precision.

"Let's get a-going to the music store! Oh come on, leave that rip-off book alone. Go go!"

"My boooook!"

"GAH! EXPENSIVE!"

Mio forcefully grabbed Ritsu by the collar to avoid having the girl strangle the neck of a guitar from frustration. "I told you it's like that! Now lower your voice, people are looking. Ugh." She did a quick sweeping glance towards the curious onlookers and a suspicious employee before dragging Ritsu deeper into the shop.

"I didn't know they were this expensive," Ritsu said darkly after Mio had released her hold, "I mean, they're ripping us poor students off! Hey, Miooo, isn't there a cheaper place around? Like, in the 100 yen shop?"

"I… seriously doubt that."

"…Oh well, Pokémon is about to start." With a flowery air of innocence around her, Ritsu remarked sweetly while starting to walk towards the entrance.

But before she could make any further progress, once again her head was the recipient of a powerful punch delivered by the dangerous straight man of the two man comedy pair.

"Mou, Ritsu! Weren't you the one who suggested this in the first place? Be more serious about it!"

"But… but…"

"No buts!" Saying that firmly, Mio grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face the items on display. "You still have your new year's money, right? No excuse. Now we've got to decided on which one to play. Of course, we don't have to buy them now, but it's good to get a general idea."

"Tsk, Mio's a bully. What do you wanna play anyways?"

"Umm… Well…" Mio cupped her chin with her fist. "Well, I've been thinking about… guitars. I mean, I like their sound and they look nice…"

"Ohoo~ A guitar eh? So it means in the future you'd be performing live in front of hundreds – no, thousands of audience as the lead guitarist - cute Mio-chuan with her guitar in a maid costume. Everyone's eyes will be trained. On. You!"

Immediately following Ritsu's tasteless fantasy, a mushroom cloud erupted from Mio's much overheated brain. The owner sunk onto the floor in a pile of mush muttering nonsensical words.

It was certainly an amusing sight for Ritsu, but feeling somewhat guilty at inducing another nervous breakdown (what was it, the eighth time this week?), she propped Mio up while pointing randomly at the rack without looking. "H-hey, I'm just joking. Come on, look, I think you'll like that."

Mio's eyes followed Ritsu's finger. "A… bass…?"

"Huh?" Ritsu turned to see where she had pointed. A bass, indeed. Of all the luck. "O-oh yeah, a bass! I think it'll definitely suit you, since no one pays attention to the bassist anyways." Saying such a scathing comment casually, Ritsu regarded the instrument in question carefully. "Yep. A bass. Man, I'm such a genius."

"It's…"

She leaned closer to hear her friend.

"Pretty…"

And noticed that Mio was staring at it with a dumb, awestruck expression. If Ritsu squinted hard enough, she felt she might see random sparkles in the background.

"Oi… Mio... Shouldn't you look at others fir-"

"RITSU!"

"M-Mio?"

"A bass! I'm definitely playing a bass!"

"Well, that's good but… Look at the price first. And let go of my shoulders. It's starting to hurt."

"Eh? Oh, sorry." Mio released her steel clutches on Ritsu's shoulder, and ignoring her pained expression as she swung her shoulder around in attempt to revive the feeling on it, Mio looked at the price stuffed near the headstock for the first time.

"…110,000 yen. Uh—"

Ritsu sneered. "Look who's complaining now."

Despite the outlandish price tag, Mio couldn't peel her eyes away from it. There seemed to be a magnet propelling her… propelling her… propelling her…

"Earth to Mio. Oooi, earth to Mio. A martian has landed! All our bases are belong to them! Commander Mio, requesting immediate action!"

…Propelling her…

"…Eh, I guess I'll take a look around." With that, Ritsu sauntered off, leaving Mio alone in her dream world consisting of that bass and its splendid trifecta of colorful painted wood. And the shiny strings and the play of light on its tuning pegs and the nice writing on the headstock and-

Exactly twelve minutes and fifty eighty seconds later, she snapped out of her trance and remembered that she was still on earth. And not quite as rich as to be able to afford the price tag. It seemed like she would have to give up on it for now. She spotted Ritsu starring intently at a guitar at the opposite section of the shop and walked over slowly, shooting the bass glances with depressed sighs in between.

"Ritsu…"

"Oh, hey Mio. Look," Ritsu pulled an electric guitar off the rack and started playing air guitar with it, striking various embarrassing poses. "Isn't this cool? I think I should definitely play the guitar, I mean, they get the most attention, after all!"

Once again Mio had to do a sweeping glance on the general vicinity. "Ugh, Ritsu, stop that, it's embarrassing!"

"Hee? But come on, it's cool right? It'll certainly be suited for someone like me!" She continued doing a butchered imitation of Hendrix. Not that she knew anything about Hendrix except for the fact that his name seemed to crop up a lot on TV. Usually after "super" "awesome" and "guitarist". Necessarily in that order.

"Sto-"

"If it's for you, miss, I would recommend a different one."

"Whoa, you surprised me!"

Out of nowhere, an employee had sneaked up behind them and regarded Ritsu with a serious face. He adjusted his glasses, swept past a very pale Mio and took the guitar from Ritsu, played a few riffs, and handed it back to her. Ritsu thought that he just wanted to look cool. "Why a different one?"

"Well, as you can see," Employee-san made another adjustment to his glasses, "Since you have small hands, it would be quite difficult to play. I'd recommend something with a thinner neck and shorter scale, and a bit lighter too."

Taken aback, Ritsu stared at her hand and indeed, found it a bit on a small side. She never thought about it, but being told so bluntly like this… Then she imagined the tiny finger movements required from a guitarist. And stared harder.

"I… think I'll pass on the guitar. Ha ha. Ha."

She decided there and then that her instrument will not require any random tiny movements from the fingers. Just thinking about those tiny little movements sent a shiver down a spine. What would…. then she spotted that.

"Ah! That! I want that!" Without further ado, she thrust the guitar at an unsuspecting Mio – almost toppling her over in the process (and only barely saved by a quick grab at an unsuspecting guitar on the wall. Price check: 400,000 yen) – and ran towards her target like a hyperactive vulture spotting a cowering rabbit.

The employee was wise in doing a rapid back step and thus avoided impalement by various bits of strings and pegs and a pint-sized school girl with ADHD.

"MIO! DRUMS!" Said Ritsu, already waving a pair of drumsticks haphazardly. "Drums! Look, it's so... So...!"

After seven years of hanging around Ritsu, getting abused, and treated like a slightly less portable nicotine fix, Mio pretty much or less knew what was going in that slightly-denser-than-air thing inside Ritsu's head. "...Bangy?" She hazarded a guess.

"Yep! Bangy! Besides, it doesn't require those stupid little finger movements." Ritsu demonstrated this fact by hitting the drum set randomly, causing a crescendo of very, very distracting clangs and thumps.

When Ritsu began to experimenting with the snares, Mr. Employee (who finally realized that he deserved more than 650 yen an hour and that a talk with his boss was in order; along with a sign banning all hyperactive sugar addled junior high schoolers, perhaps) quickly sidestepped between her and the drumkit with the precision only a well-trained, abused employee could summon, and jabbed a figure into a calculator. He cleared his throat. "As you can see, this here... secondhand. We'll even throw in the sticks for free. All for..."

Ritsu leaned forward to read the display. "WHAT!"

"Ri-Ritsu..."

"That's ridiculous! You're telling me that beat up old cans cost that much?"

"W-well... how about this?" Rapid figure punching in.

"You're trying to swindle me, aren't you? Aren'tcha?"

"N-no! This?"

"Cheaper!"

"Uuuhhhh-"

"Ooh, manaageee-"

"Half price! Take it; take it and please please go away!"

"...Ritsu..."

With Mio's soft sigh and Mr. Employee's expression of utter despair (punctuated with brief bouts of sniveling and pathetic snot wiping), Ritsu would always remember that day as the day when she first tasted victory – bittersweet. All the blood and sweat and pain, and in the end, it was all worth it.

She felt like striking a statue of liberty pose right there and then.

"And so, that's the history of Keionbu's president and sidekick number one." Ritsu remarked proudly, hands on hips and chest thrust out.

"I see… so that's what happened," Tsumugi remarked dreamily with a calm sip of her tea, no doubt her Mugi Yuri Simulator was processing things quite differently. Perhaps with an inappropriate use of the thick bass neck."It certainly fits you two."

Azusa, who had been listening intently until then leaned forward to stare at Mio with awe. "Hee~ So that's how Mio-sempai chose the bass, because of Ritsu-sempai."

"Haha, well, I guess that's how it goes. All in all, I'm glad it happened," said Mio with a tinge of nostalgia, smiling softly. "I saved some money and went back two weeks later for Eliz- I mean, my bass."

"Wow..."

"Hmm? Yui?"

"AWESOME!" Yui ignored Mio's startled cry and placed both palms on the table and leaned forward to stare at the combo with the whole galaxy of shiny she-bangs in her eyes. "Let's go to the music store now! Let's buy a guitar!"

Azusa tugged at Yui's sleeves. "Uh... Yui-sempai... You already have a guitar."

"But... but... it's so unfair they get to experience coming of age drama-like scenes like that. I want in tooo."

"Yes, yes. Here sempai, cake."

"Oooh!"

"By the way, Ritsu... Remember that time? Close to graduation?"

"Haha yeah, that happened, didn't it? The road was so slippery and I didn't tie my shoes properly. Fell and almost knocked an old man off his bike."

"Wha? Whash happyen?"

"Yui. Swallow first then talk."

"Yui-sempai... I'm curious too, Ritsu-sempai. What happened?"

"Well, alright. It was snowing that day, right. And I was..."

Mugi watched the exchange in silence. Her gaze narrowed and focused on Mio and Ritsu. She took a tiny sip from her cup and held it in both hands in attempt to draw some warmth. Then she contemplated.

Perhaps it was only on sheer impulse that they had chosen to play the bass and drums, but Tsumugi was convinced that it was not mere coincidence. The relationship between a bassist and a drummer is not the same as the rest of the band, after all. Together they build the foundation of the band with their synchronized beat and rhythm, with the bassist following the drummer with minute precision – building a solid connection that cannot be imitated by any other instruments in the band. Thus it was also no coincidence that only Mio could keep up with Ritsu's fast, often unpredictable drumming. Perhaps that is why the band sounded so good when they were performing: simply because of the relationship between one of Akiyama Mio and Tainaka Ritsu: The bassist and the drummer. The synchronization of two very different people that had also contagiously spread to the rest of the club – to five different people who somehow chose to spend a few hours everyday just... being together like this.

Now, if only that relationship would extent in private, Tsumugi thought with a sigh.

"Well then, shall we have more cakes?"

Oh well, that would come later. She'd make sure of it.

I wrote this story a long, long time ago when season 1 has yet finished. This might not fit in with the canon for all I know, but alas, enjoy it for what it's worth.